Dr. Jonathan Singerton from the Department of History and European Ethnology at the University of Innsbruck, visited his research colleagues at the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge from 25 October until 5 November 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the original schedule of his visit to be delayed, but fortunately Dr. Singerton was able to travel to Cambridge and work on his project "New Perspectives on Eighteenth-Century Habsburg History".

The goal of his research visit was to present a paper at the Cambridge New Habsburg History seminar run by Prof. Joachim Whaley, Dr. William O’Reilly, and Dr. Janine Maegraith. "The network exists as a forum to facilitate the cutting-edge research on the history of the Habsburg monarchy and is frequented by a strong cadre of central European and German historians at Cambridge" says Singerton. He explained that his paper focused on a novel approach to the history of the Habsburg Monarchy via the effects of the American Revolution.

Dr. Singerton also held a talk on "The Importance of the American Revolution for the Habsburg Monarchy" at the University of Cambridge. In this talk, he argued that the Revolution’s significant lay not only in its widespread influence within central Europe but also in its invitation to recast Habsburg history from a wider, transatlantic and even global dimension.
The paper as well as his talk were well received with fruitful discussions occurring during and after the seminar.

BritInn was pleased to support Dr. Singerton's research visit and is looking foward to the International conference hosted at the University of Innsbruck in May 2022, where Habsburg history will be reconceptualized from a global perspective and Dr. O'Reilly as well as other members of his team will be in attendance.

BritInn Fellow Report

It was our pleasure to welcome Dr. Martin C. Schleper from the Department of Management, Business School, University of Sussex to the University of Innsbruck as the first BritInn Incoming Fellow since March 2020!

Dr. Schleper was hosted by Prof. Andreas Eckhardt and his team from the Department of Information Systems, Production and Logistics Management​ at the University of Innsbruck.
During his stay, Dr. Schleper presented an overview of topics around responsibility transcendence in supply chain management, with a strong focus on the topic of conflict minerals. Following the talk, the audience, consisting of faculty members and PhD students, lively discussed different approaches to ethical supply chain management and operational and perspectives on conflict materials. Several faculty members were keen on discussing more detailed questions about potential collaborations.

Additionally, Dr. Schleper and Prof. Eckhardt had the opportunity to move forward with their joint research project "Between caring and denying - The role of conflict minerals and unfair working conditions for technology use". Inspired by Dr. Martin Schleper's talk on "Transcending Corporate Responsibility? The Context of Conflict Minerals" they decided to further study consumers’ awareness and denial with regard to the use of conflict minerals, which are important raw materials for the production of IT devices. "Although it has been shown that these conflict minerals are mined under inhumane conditions, consumers do not seem to care about this issue." says Prof. Eckhardt. Thus, they are planning on developing an empirical study to investigate the underlying reasons for consumers' attitude and behavior. 

BritInn was delighted to have Dr. Schleper here in Innsbruck and is excited for future projects in this research area!

BritInn Fellow Report